Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Scripps Institution of Oceanography pier

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or just Scripps) in La Jolla, California, is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and earth science research, graduate training, and public service in the world. Hundreds of ocean and earth researchers conduct scientific research with the aid of oceanographic research vessels and shorebased laboratories. The public explorations center of the institution is the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Its Old Scripps Building is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. It is part of the University of California, San Diego.

Tony Haymet is the tenth director of Scripps. He also serves as UC San Diego's vice chancellor for marine sciences and dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences, and is a professor of oceanography at Scripps. He joined Scripps in 2006.

Scripps publishes explorations now an award-winning monthly e-magazine of ocean and earth science.

Mission statement

"To seek, teach, and communicate scientific understanding of the oceans, atmosphere, and Earth for the benefit of society and the environment."

Research programs

Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers at sea

The institution's research programs encompass biological, physical, chemical, geological, and geophysical studies of the oceans and earth. Scripps also studies the interaction of the oceans with both the atmospheric climate and environmental concerns on terra firma. Related to this research, Scripps offers doctoral degrees in Oceanography, Marine Biology, and Earth Sciences.

Today, the Scripps staff of 1,300 includes approximately 100 faculty, 300 other scientists and some 225 graduate students, with an annual budget of more than $140 million. The institution operates a fleet of four oceanographic research vessels and the research platform R/P FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) for oceanographic research and has served as manager of the Deep Sea Drilling Program.

History

See also: Old Scripps Building

Scripps Institution of Oceanography was founded in 1903 as the Marine Biological Association of San Diego, an independent biological research laboratory, by University of California Zoology professor William Emerson Ritter, with support from local philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps and later her brother E. W. Scripps. They fully funded Scripps for the first several years. Scripps began institutional life in the boathouse of the Hotel del Coronado located on San Diego Bay. It re-located in 1905 to La Jolla on the head above La Jolla Cove, and finally in 1907 to its present location.

In 1912 Scripps became part of the University of California and was renamed the "Scripps Institution for Biological Research". The name was changed to Scripps Institution of Oceanography in October 1925. During the 1960s, led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography director Roger Revelle, it formed the nucleus for the creation of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) on a bluff overlooking Scripps Institution.

The Old Scripps Building, designed by Irving Gill, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1982. Architect Barton Myers designed the current Scripps Building.

Research vessels

Scripps research vessel Roger Revelle

Scripps owns and operates several research vessels and platforms:

• RP FLIP
• RV Roger Revelle (AGOR-24)
• RV Melville
• RV New Horizon
• RV Robert Gordon Sproul

Previous vessels larger than 50 ft (15 m)

• 1906 - R/V Loma
• 1907 - 1917 R/V Alexander Agassiz
• 1918 - 1918 R/V Ellen Browning
• 1925 - 1936 R/V Scripps
• 1937 - 1955 R/V E. W. Scripps
• 1955 - 1965 R/V Stranger (Operated as USS Jasper from 1941 to 1947 for the UC Division of War Research)
• 1947 - 1956 R/V Crest
• 1947 - 1969 R/V Horizon
• 1948 - 1965 R/V Paolina-T
• 1951 - 1965 R/V Spencer F.Baird
• 1955 - 1969 T-441
• 1956 - 1962 R/V Orca
• 1959 - 1963 R/V Hugh M. Smith
• 1959 - 1970 R/V Argo (Official Navy name was Snatch)
• 1962 - 1976 R/V Alexander Agassiz
• 1962–present R/P FLIP
• 1962 - 1974 R/V Oconostota (The Oconostota was known as "The Rolling O" because of its unpleasant motion.)
• 1965 - 1980 R/V Alpha Helix (Transferred to University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 1980 (UAF sold vessel in 2007 to Stabbert Maritime)
• 1965 - ???? R/V Ellen B. Scripps
• 1966 - 1992 R/V Thomas Washington (Transferred to Chile and renamed Vidal Gormaz in 1992 (still operating in 2010)
• 1969–present R/V Melville (AGOR-14)
• 1973 - ???? R/V Gianna
• 1973 - ???? R/V Dolphin (Dolphin is now at the San Diego Maritime Museum)
• 1978–present R/V New Horizon
• 1984–present R/V Robert Gordon Sproul
• 1995–present R/V Roger Revelle (AGOR 24)

Birch Aquarium

The mission of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps is:

• to provide ocean science education
• to interpret Scripps research
• to promote ocean conservation

Birch Aquarium at Scripps

For more than a century, generations of families have discovered the ocean world through exhibits and educational programs of the aquarium-museum associated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. From modest displays at the turn-of-the-century to magnificent habitats in the present, the role of the aquarium-museum in Scripps Oceanography's legacy is important. Today, more than 400,000 people visit Birch Aquarium at Scripps each year.

The Birch Aquarium has a number of exhibits and hands-on activities. These include:

• The Hall of Fishes with more than 60 tanks of Pacific fishes and invertebrates; the largest habitat is a 70,000-gallon kelp forest.
• Scripps Explorers Gallery, featuring cutting-edge discoveries of Scripps explorers in climate, earth, and ocean sciences through interactive exhibits
• Preuss Tidepool Plaza, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with living tide pools for discovery
• Smargon Courtyard, also overlooking coastal bluffs, features a 13,000-gallon shark reef tank and Wonders of Water play stations. Seasonal events take place here during the year.

The aquarium's hilltop site provides a spectacular overview of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography campus and the Pacific Ocean.

Notable faculty members

• Ralph J. Cicerone
• Robert W. Corell
• Charles S. Cox
• Paul J. Crutzen
• Paul K. Dayton
• Robert S. Dietz
• Carl Eckart
• Jim T. Enright
• Robert Garrels
• Joel Hedgpeth
• Sam Hinton
• Carl Hubbs
• Douglas Inman
• John D. Isaacs
• Martin W. Johnson
• Thomas H. Jordan (former)
• Charles David Keeling
• Charles Kennel
• Edwin P. Martz
• Mario J. Molina
• Walter Munk
• Jerome Namias
• William Nierenberg
• Pearn P. Niiler
• Stewart Nozette
• Veerabhadran Ramanathan
• Roger Revelle
• William Emerson Ritter
• Dean Roemmich
• Francis Parker Shepard
• Cornelius Cole Smith, Jr.
• Richard Somerville
• Fred Spiess
• George Sugihara
• Harald Sverdrup
• Lynne Talley
• Warren White
• Benjamin Elazari Volcani
• K.V Ram Harsha

Notable alumni

• Tanya Atwater
• Stephen E. Calvert
• Aiden M. Christiansen
• Jack Corliss
• John M. Edmond
• Susan Hough
• Megan McArthur
• Marcia McNutt
• Wheeler J. North
• Colm Ó hEocha
• George Perry
• Brinke Stevens

Popular culture

In 2008, Scripps Institution of Oceanography was the subject of a category on the TV game show Jeopardy!. Scripps has been a story element in numerous fictional works.

See also

• Array Network Facility
• Library of Congress Digital Library project
• National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
• The Scripps Research Institute, a neighboring, but completely independent medical research institute.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a similar research facility on the east coast of the USA.
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, another oceanographic education and research facility located at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Further reading

• Scripps Institution of Oceanography centennial website
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography; First Fifty Years Helen Raitt and Beatrice Moulton. Los Angeles : W. Ritchie Press, 1967.
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography : Probing the Oceans, 1936 to 1976 Elizabeth Noble Shor. San Diego, Calif. : Tofua Press, 1978.
• The Keeling Curve Turns 50

External links

• Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• explorations E-Magazine
• Scripps News
• Support Scripps
• Scripps Education Department
• Birch Aquarium at Scripps
• "How Scripps Institution Came To San Diego", The Journal of San Diego History 27:3 (Summer 1981) by Elizabeth N. Shor